Hearthstone: What is Tempo Mage?

We love Hearthstone here at IGN, but its incredible depth can be quite intimidating. If you like the game, but don't know your Control Priests from your Mid-range Hunters, this series should help. In each instalment we run through an important deck archetype - what it's trying to achieve, and the key cards, combos and strategies. So far we've published video guides to Aggro Shaman, Freeze Mage and Secret Paladin, but now it's time for Tempo Mage.

Tempo Mage in 2016...

The basic idea of this deck type is to establish and maintain board control and momentum from the very start of each game. By making more efficient use of your cards – and mana - you’re the one dictating terms – deciding when and how to trade and keeping up a board presence while your opponent has to make suboptimal choices to avoid the game getting away from them. Ideally you’ll play something on every turn to help you snowball the game – either a minion or a spell that removes an enemy minion to keep your high synergy minions alive. Or both.

The way Tempo Mage builds tempo at the start of the game is by playing low cost minions that benefit from low cost spells – which are also efficient removal. It then moves into sturdy mid game minions with a couple of late game threats. The deck archetype also typically has strong removal that can also be used to finish the opponent off. Fireball being the prime example.

It’s not necessarily the most consistent deck, despite the high synergy between its cards – and a bad draw can be absolutely disastrous. This is a deck that absolutely aims to “curve out” in the early game, but that term means something a little different here. A lot of the time when Hearthstone players talk about “curving out” they mean - play a strong one drop on one, play a strong two drop on two, play a strong three drop on three, etc.

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The early turns can be difficult to navigate correctly, because you often have so many options, but Tempo Mage is a lot of fun to play, and when everything lines up, you can win in spectacular fashion.

In this case it’s more about using all your mana and maximising it. You definitely want to play your Mana Wyrm on one, for instance, but on two you could use a spell to remove whatever your opponent plays and effectively turn it into a two drop. On three you might play a Sorcerer’s Apprentice so that you can remove a minion with a one mana Frostbolt or Flamecannon. Minions are never played on curve for the sake of it in this deck. You only really do that in dire situations and instead try to maximise the extreme synergy of the low cost cards.

For that reason, the early turns can be difficult to navigate correctly, because you often have so many options, but Tempo Mage is a lot of fun to play, and when everything lines up, you can win in spectacular fashion.

There are quite a few variations of this archetype – some a little faster, some a little slower, and outside the core cards, you can swap things around based on your personal card collection or play style. Let’s run through what makes Tempo Mage tick.

Key cards and components

Mana Wyrm

This one-drop is really powerful in this deck archetype, because you have so many low cost spells to buff it, ensuring your opponent either has to remove it with a higher cost minion/spell or it can trade for a higher cost minion/do face damage. If you play it on turn one, you can then use a two mana spell – Frostbolt, Flamecannon, Unstable Portal on turn two to buff it and potentially remove whatever is on the board. Mana Wyrm even synergises with the coin, making the dream opening Mana Wyrm, coin, Mana Wyrm on turn one, followed by a two mana spell (or two one mana spells) on turn two. Mana Wyrm isn’t great to draw in the late game, but - unlike many other one drops – it can at least be developed into a threat if you have spells in hand.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Another minion that’s brilliant at generating momentum and getting maximum value out of your cards, and can synergise with many of the other core tools, like Mana Wyrm, Flamewaker and all those low cost spells.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice lets you do things like play it on turn two then play Arcane Missiles for free. Or coin into Flamecannon, or Frostbolt, or Unstable Portal. It's also a fine target for an early Duplicate out of a Mad Scientist as dropping two of these lowers the cost of any spells you have in hand by two.

Mad Scientist + Secrets

Mad Scientist is one of the strongest neutral minions in the game for Mage. Why? Because Mage secrets cost three mana (it’s great for Hunters too, who have two mana secrets – less so for Paladin’s measly one mana secrets), so triggering the deathrattle on a Mad Scientist saves you the three mana it would have cost to play the secret and it thins your deck out, meaning you’re less likely to draw a secret on future turns.

Sure, you may not get the full value out of the secret in question compared to actually choosing when to play it, but any value you get is a bonus given it was free. Plus, once you have a secret active it forces your opponent to play around it. They may be less inclined to drop that Piloted Shredder on turn four if they think you have a Mirror Entity, for instance.

Tempo Mage decks generally play two or three secrets total, choosing between Mirror Entity, Duplicate, Counterspell and – if it’s a really greedy version - Effigy. It all depends on what works best with the list in question, what you’re facing on the ladder and what people are expecting. A few months ago, for instance, Tempo Mage generally ran Duplicate and Mirror Entity. At the moment the trend is for it to be Mirror Entity and Counterspell. If you're playing the deck and you feel like your opponents are too adept at playing around those secrets it's well worth changing them up. And if you're playing against it, those are the two to test for right now.

The most-used secrets in Tempo Mage lists.

It’s possible to cut Mad Scientists and secrets from Tempo Mage altogether, in favour of minions that create further synergy with the rest of the deck - such as Spellslinger and Bloodmage Thalnos, but it’s not common.

Flamewaker

This card was introduced in the Blackrock Mountain expansion and really helped solidify Tempo Mage as a viable deck. It increases the pool of low cost minions that synergise with all the deck’s spells, making the deck more consistent overall. And like the Mana Wyrm, it benefits from the coin. Play it on turn three then coin into Arcane Missiles and you’re flinging seven random damage at your opponent.

As that illustrates, Flamewaker is a card that you’re almost always looking to get additional value out of. Obviously recognising the match-up will guide how you decide to play, but for most encounters if you have this in your opening hand you won’t play it naked on turn three. You’ll try and contest the board in other ways while you build up an arsenal of spells – and possibly a Sorcerer’s Apprentice – so you can go off later.

Flamewaker is capable of a deceptive amount of burst damage. For a while last year I played a faster version of this deck that relied heavily on Flamewakers to immolate my opponent, with Echo of Medivh to create more/refill my hand later in the game. It was awesome when it worked. Not so much when it didn’t.

Low cost spells

The Mage has a hugely versatile arsenal of low cost spells that appear in Tempo Mage decks in varying numbers, including Arcane Blast (deal 2 damage to a minion, with double the effect from increased spell damage), Arcane Missiles (deal 3 damage randomly split between all enemies), Arcane Explosion (deal 1 damage to all enemy minions), Mirror Image (summon two 0/2 minions with taunt – can be great to protect higher value minions if you’re running into a lot of Warriors) and Unstable Portal (add a random minion to your hand. It costs 3 less).

Mage has so many good, cheap spells to choose from.

And let’s not forget Flamecannon (deal 4 damage to a random enemy minion) and Frostbolt (deal 3 damage to a character and freeze it). All of these spells benefit enormously from Sorcerer’s Apprentice and they all trigger Flamewaker and Archmage Antonidas. You can even consider including a Clockwork Gnome for an additional turn one play that then turns into a spare part – another one mana spell.

Generally speaking for current Tempo Mage decks, there are almost always two Arcane Missiles, two Frostbolts and two Unstable Portals. Arcane Blast and Flamecannon are both always included but can either be singles or doubles. Mirror Image occasionally pops up too.

There are plenty of three cost spells as well. Pretty much every Tempo Mage also runs two Arcane Intellects – it’s another card with high synergy, but is often vital in the late game to draw into combo pieces or burn, while your secrets won’t always be pulled by Mad Scientist – sometimes you need to pay the mana cost (or close). Good thing they work so nicely with all those low cost minions!

Quality removal

Flamecannon and Frostbolt are both insanely powerful removal and a crucial part of your arsenal in maintaining tempo. They can either be used in the early game to establish control (nothing like Sorcerer’s Apprentice into Flamecannon on turn 3 to remove a four health minion and clear the board) or used strategically later on, either as removal or to freeze a big threat – or enemy hero with a weapon. They’re also cheap enough to be used on the same turn as Azure Drake for extra damage later in the game.

The other crucial piece of removal is Fireball, which becomes even better when paired with Flamewaker or Sorcerer’s Apprentice. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to sneak a couple more of these into your hand thanks to Archmage Antonidas… and if you can do that you’re in a great position to win the game.

Efficient spells that can be even more powerful in Tempo Mage.

Big Bombs

In classic Tempo Mage decks Antonidas is your Fireball engine, and incredibly powerful when used well. The choice you face is when to play him, as he’s a must-remove minion so the likelihood he’s going to stick around a turn is pretty slim. Where you almost always play Dr. Boom on turn 7 given the opportunity, you almost always hold onto Antonidas so you can get at least one Fireball out of him on the turn he's played. Sometimes that extra reach is the difference between winning and losing.

It should be noted that some Tempo Mages have swapped him out in favour of Ragnaros recently, and that actually makes a lot of sense. Antonidas won’t stop you from getting killed on the turn he’s played. In fact, while you can net yourself some Fireballs, he effectively does nothing on the turn he’s played. Rag, on the other hand, has an immediate impact. He can give you the extra reach you need to win the game, or at least clear a big threat. The choice of which to include obviously depends on the pace of the meta game and how your games are going at your current position on the ladder. And also whether Big Game Hunter is popular.

Oh, and while some decks toyed with Rhonin, he's ultimately too slow for the standard list. Dr. Boom, on the other hand, is basically considered a staple card in Tempo Mage. (What a surprise.)

All three can fall prey to Big Game Hunter.

The rest of the deck

Two of the other real fixtures are Azure Drake and (as mentioned above) Arcane Intellect. The card draw is important, but so too are their other attributes. Azure Drake is a solid body and the extra spell damage is really useful (and threatening for opponents), while Arcane Intellect can trigger Flamewaker and Antonidas, and can be even better value with a Sorcerer’s Apprentice on the board.

Ethereal Conjurer has also been popping up a lot in Tempo Mage since its release during League of Explorers, but generally as a one-of. It represents card draw too, and is incredibly versatile. On one hand, it can help you come back in a game you’re losing, whereas on the other, it can give you the extra reach you need to win. Pyroblast? Don’t mind if I do.

Ethereal Conjurer is a key new addition to Tempo Mage, letting you draw answers or victory.

There are plenty of other cards that can be in a Tempo Mage build, but come down to personal preference. Do you want Water Elementals or Piloted Shredders as your four drop? Are you playing a slightly slower version? Maybe you need Sludge Belchers to help ensure you get to the late game? Do you need a Flamestrike as a way to recover lost board control? What is your late game strategy? It’s up to you. The key is to try and set the pace in the early game, and the greedier your deck (i.e. the more high cost cards you include) the harder that will be.

The four spot is flexible. Even Kezan can be a good one-of in the right meta.

The Mulligan

Another 2016 variant.

Generally you’re looking for your low cost minions, so should turf any low cost spells you have, unless you already have the low cost minions that synergise with said spells. Obviously your mulligan changes depending on the match-up. If you’re facing a Priest, for instance, you might consider keeping a Frostbolt in your opening hand so you can deal with a turn one Northshire Cleric to prevent your opponent having the opportunity to cast Velen’s Chosen on it.

Another example would be keeping an Arcane Missiles in your opening hand against Paladin – it’s great for popping divine shields or dealing with turn three Muster for Battle. (Hell, if you’re facing nothing but Paladin on the ladder you may even consider teching in Arcane Explosion.) You could make the same argument if you think you’re facing a Face Hunter – a lot of one health minions in that deck.

Learning what to consider in the mulligan comes with experience, but just try and think out your opponent's likely best case scenario for the early game, and the risk that it poses to you.

If you want to see the archetype in action, you can check out the video at the top of this article for a run-through of two decklists and a couple of sample games. Oh, and don't forget to check out our videos on Aggro Shaman, Freeze Mage and Secret Paladin too.

Cam Shea is Senior Editor in IGN's Australian office and a rather large Hearthstone fan. Say hello on Twitter: @jazzebration.